Gurgaon: At a camp organised by the civic body, autorickshaw driver
Vijay Singh asked a company salesperson: If the battery of an e-auto stops working, how will it be fixed?
The salesperson replied that it will need to be replaced. To this, Singh voiced his follow-up query: “How much will that cost?”
“Rs 1 lakh,” the salesperson hesitantly responded.
Moments later, Singh told his friend, also an autorickshaw driver, that switching to e-autos will be costly.
The two of them were attending a camp organised by the civic body to allay concerns over the government’s new scheme to phase out older petrol- and diesel-run autos from the city by April 1. Under the initiative, the cost of procuring an e-autorickshaw will have to be borne by the drivers, but they will get subsidies for doing so.
It isn’t that the drivers are closed to the idea of using electric autorickshaws, they said, adding that they have legitimate concerns.
These include limited power infrastructure for electric vehicles such as charging stations and the financial liability of buying and maintaining an e-auto.
“There are few charging stations in the city as of now. The infrastructure should be robust if the government wants all of us to switch to e-autos,” Singh, who has been driving an autorickshaw in Gurgaon for the last three years, said.
Mayor
Madhu Azad
, at the camp on Thursday, attempted to address their worries. She said that free charging stations have been set up at the Sector 42 office of
MCG, the Sector 29-fire station and the Sector 27-community centre.
“Under the e-parivartan project of the state government, MCG, district administration, Gurgaon traffic police and transport department are working in collaboration to replace old diesel and petrol autos with e-autos. The camp was organised to address the concerns of the auto drivers,” said Azad.
Another issue that a drivers’ association raised was that of procuring loans without guarantees.
“The auto drivers want to switch to e-autos but there are challenges. We spoke to the bank representatives today (Thursday) and we were told that the bank will provide a loan to the auto drivers if they have a house in their name. A majority of auto drivers live in rented accommodation here,” said
Yogesh Sharma, general secretary of the Auto Chalak Sangathan.
MCG officials, meanwhile, said they were hopeful of a positive response from the drivers. “A 100 auto drivers registered on Thursday to make the switch to e-autos at the camp,” said MCG spokesperson
SS Rohilla
.
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